I am the only Uilleann piper in my region - the closest is about 250 km from here. I am learning on my own. Which easy and fun tunes do you recommend to start with? I have started with The New Approach to Uilleann Piping by H J Clarke. Thanks!
I think Patsy Touhey’s advice about working on scales before playing dance music still holds good, but one common beginners’ tune is Jimmy Ward’s - a fun little jig that stays in the lower octave.
The Tutor section within The Source on the Na Píobairí Uilleann website has loads of step by step videos of tunes for beginners, intermediate and advance skill levels.
The early tunes in the Clarke book are great for starting on, such as Garret Barry’s. Like myles mentioned, Jimmy Ward’s is a great option too, because it stays in the lower octave. The first tune I was given at lessons was Song of the Chanter. A couple others I focused on in the beginning that were mostly in the lower octave were Mountain Road and The Humours Of Trim.
I’m a beginner too (about 4 months) and am having fun with Return from Fingal and Down by the Sally Gardens. They poke their heads up into the second register only for a note or two - mostly in the bottom register.
mo ghile mear
Bonnie Doone, Rose of Aranmore, Very easy and nice tunes. For a start into the second octave I found South wind a satisfying
tune. I also would recommend picking a hard piece like Harvest Home as an attainable goal or a yardstick on progress You can get those nice pip pip sounds going. I hate exercises but I use diads and triads up and back legato and staccato “painful”
If you can meet with triumph and disaster…
The first 3 tunes that Bill Ochs
taught me were mo ghile mear,
and 2 versions of the return from fingal.
This is not the version that Seamus Ennis played.
X: 4
T: Return From Fingal
R: hornpipe
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Edor
B/A/G/F/ E/F/G/A/|B/A/G/F/ EE|A/G/F/A/ dA|BA B/c/d|
B/A/G/F/ E/F/G/A/|B/A/G/F/ EE|A/G/F/A/ dA|FE E2:|
!|:fe ed/c/|BA d>A|BA dA|BA B/c/d/e/|
fe ed/c/|BA d>A|B/A/F/A/ dA|FE E2:|